Sunday, July 28, 2013

The readings today are about prayer and perseverance, and there are ancient lessons and new lessons, but to understand what Jesus has to teach us, we first have to understand what Luke, the gospel writer, is doing. No gospel writer wrote his gospel because he was bored, he wrote it for a reason So what was Luke doing? Luke often portrays Jesus as a prophet, because this would resonate with his Jewish audience. Luke of course understood that Jesus was not just a prophet, but he portrayed him as walking the same path as the prophets and following in their footsteps. So Luke frames this question about how to pray in the form of prophetic teaching when the disciple says to him, "Teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples." The disciple is saying, "Hey, John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray, so act like that prophet and teach us to pray." They were saying, "Be like the other prophets we know." The apostles had seen Jesus in prayer previously, and they wanted him to act like other prophets, so they wanted him to teach them to pray like the other prophets.

And here's where Jesus gives us an ancient teaching and a brand new teaching all at once. He is going to take something ordinary and do something completely unexpected with it. So the disciples want him to act like a prophet and teach them to pray. Fine, he'll do that, he'll teach them to pray. But then with that very first word of the prayer we have something completely new, and that first word is "Father."

Here's we need to understand a bit more background. Among Jewish literature, especially among the poetic scriptures, there had certainly been a tradition of comparing God to a father, and there are also writings about God's nurturing and motherly characteristics. So in Jewish history, there is present this poetic tradition of comparing God to a father, but it was never much more than a comparison. Fundamentally, God was YHWH, I Am Who Am, as he revealed to Moses in the burning bush. This name asserts God's complete transcendence, his complete otherness. God is the one who just exists, and he relies on no one else for his existence. Of course, throughout the Old Testament we see how much God does care for Israel and how close he actually is to those who love him. The Old Testament is the story of God's loving care for Israel, but it is always against the backdrop of the name YHWH, God is other.

So this newness, this twist that Jesus so often gives to the ordinary, comes when he addresses God simply as "Father." No comparison, nothing about how God is like a Father, he just says, "You, God, Father." Jesus shows us that this utterly transcendent God is in fact right here with us. He isn't merely like a father, he is our Father. He couldn't be closer. And then Jesus continues to show us how to interact with this Father: you assert his holiness, you ask for the things you need, and you pray for forgiveness of your sins.

So the totally new lesson Jesus has for his disciples is how God is actually their Father, he isn't just like a father. And now the ancient lesson comes when he teaches them to pray to this Father without ceasing. It's ancient because it's the same lesson we learn from Abraham in the first reading. Pray without ceasing. Be persistent in your prayer! Be obnoxious, even! This story about knocking on a neighbor's door at midnight is strange because if I were to knock on your door at midnight, I'd fully expect you to call the police! But Luke understands Jewish culture because in this culture, ties of family and friendship were paramount. Luke understands that of course you would get out of bed to help your friend at all hours, if not because it's the right thing to do, then at least because your friend is persistence.

The new lesson, that God really is our Father, and the ancient lesson, that we should pray to him relentlessly, should cause us to ask some questions: How well do I actually believe that God is my Father, and does that belief change me? Do I pray to him without ceasing?

In the examples Jesus gives about knocking on a friend's door at midnight and about how a Father gives a son exactly what he asks for, Jesus is inviting us to trust the Father. A wise son doesn't try to fill his own needs, because he knows that's what his father want's to do for him. All he has to do is ask.

So we have to ask for what we need, and we have to ask without ceasing. So how persistent are we in our prayer? And not just prayer for ourselves, but prayer for others as well. I tell you, when I'm praying for myself, I am the most persistent person in the world, but when I'm praying for others, unless it's really serious, I often just offer a passing prayer for that person and then kind of move on. I suspect that many people are similar. But Jesus teaches us to be persistent in all of our prayer, not just the prayers for ourselves.

Sometimes, this persistent prayer is gentle, it is allowing God to be a constant presence in your life, and you are just always aware that he is right near you, and he cares for you.

But sometimes this persistent prayer is not a gentle thing. Sometimes when we pray, it's like were kicking down the door to heaven, not quietly knocking on the door. We ask for great things from God, because he can deliver great things! We don't sheepishly ask for things from God, gently calling him if he as time for us. We boldly ask great things from God, because we know he's great, and we know we are his children through baptism.

The sense of the Greek word we have translated as persistence could also be translated as "shamelessness." So the neighbor will give his friend what he needs because of his shamelessness. There is no need to be ashamed when you have a need and you need someone else to fill that need, especially when that need can only be filled by God. We turn to God without shame or embarrassment and ask him to do what we cannot do. And he promises that if we ask, we will receive; if we seek, we will find; and if we knock, the door is opened.

So remember the new lesson: that God is a Father who cares for you. Remember the ancient lesson: that you can approach this Father with boldness. Because he is your Father, you can approach him boldly, without shame. This Father loves you and cares for you, so trust him with everything.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Have you ever acted without thinking, or more specifically, without praying? I know I have. My parents could tell you countless stories of the things I did without thinking when I was growing up, and how seldom that worked out for me. The gospel today gives us an image of praying and working, and how they must relate to each other.

This story follows directly on the heels of last week's story about the Good Samaritan. Last week, we saw Jesus upset the social convention by turning the samaritan, a member of a hated group of people, into a good guy, making him the hero of a story. Today we see more social conventions being broken, and more folks than just Jesus are getting in on the act. First off, Mary's place as a woman in 1st century Judaism was indeed in the kitchen. It was the man's place to entertain the guest, or in this case to sit and learn from the guest since he was a rabbi. But instead, Mary is sitting where the men belong and learning from the rabbi. But Martha commits the biggest social blunder by asking the guest, an esteemed rabbi, to interfere in this family argument.

So what's going on? Is Jesus just upsetting social convention for the heck of it? I don't think so. I think he is trying to teach Martha and Mary something important, and in turn he is trying to teach us also. A very traditional interpretation of this story is to see Martha and Mary as representatives of the active and contemplative lives. Martha represents the active life. All of us who have taken up normal jobs and work in the secular world have taken up the active life, we work in the world to bring about the Kingdom of God. Mary represents the contemplative life. The contemplative life refers, usually, to religious communities that have shut themselves off from the world and labor for the Kingdom of God by their constant prayers. Although we don't see them, their prayers are vitally important to the Church. So in this traditional interpretation of the Martha and Mary story, Jesus appears to be simply validating the contemplative life by saying that she has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.

I think this is a good way to understand this story, but I want to push it further because I think Jesus is trying to teach us something here in the Martha and Mary story, and that is the importance of listening to God before acting. Throughout the Bible, anytime someone sets off to do a great thing they always take time to hear the voice of God first. The good kings of the Old Testament consulted God through the prophets before they undertook anything. The apostles had to be prepared for their mission to the world by following Jesus for three years. And even Jesus went to the desert for forty days to listen to his Father before he began his public ministry. In the Bible it is always clear that hearing God comes before action.

If we work with that traditional interpretation, where Mary represents contemplation and Martha represents action, then we see that Jesus condemns neither Martha nor Mary. Keep in mind, of course, that we are using Martha and Mary as they are presented in this short story as representatives of entire ways of life. I'm sure this short story doesn't sum up their personalities. I'm sure Mary did her fair share of housework, and I'm sure Martha prayed too. But at this point, Mary had her priorities a bit more correct than did Martha.

So in our own lives, do we allow contemplation to come before action? And by this I mean do we spend serious time with God before we begin trying to work for him? The psalms tell us that if the Lord does not build the house, in vain do the builders labor, and if the Lord does not watch over the house, in vain does the watchman keep vigil. We have to make sure we are doing the work God want's us to do before trying to work for him. There's a quote I've heard before that basically asks: "Are you working for God or doing God's work?" Hopefully we are constantly trying to work for God, but we have to pray to him to see if the work we are doing is actually what he wants us to be doing.

When I talk about working for God, I'm not just thinking of those of us who are paid by the Church, I'm thinking of each of you, and all the good things you do each day, raising a family, being obedient to your parents, and quietly witnessing to God's power every day. We must pray before undertaking big actions because we want to know God's will in these things. If I live my life only in the sphere of action, I can and probably will find God from time to time. But if I spend some time in contemplation, some time where I set action aside, I can't help but meet God.

Now when I say that it's important to occasionally set action aside and spend time with God, I'm not talking about giving up all your legitimate responsibilities to run off and be a hermit. That is probably not what God wants from you. What he does want, though, is to be involved in the decisions of your life. So rather than acting without thinking or praying, like I did when I was a kid, ask God what he would have you do. Mary's posture of listening to Jesus and Martha's posture of working for him are both important, but Mary's must come first. If we don't first follow Mary's example of listening, then Martha's example of work will very soon lose its way. That's how we work for God without doing God's work.

I want to address the men for just a second. Sometimes we struggle to listen to God because we have our own plans and we don't want to consult anyone else about them. It kind of rubs us the wrong way to have to ask anyone else what's best for me. It takes a real act of humility to sit back and just listen to the Lord's plan for us rather than try to formulate our own plans. But in this humility we have Jesus as our example. His humility, his ability to just receive God's plan rather than try to come up with his own, gave him the strength to face down the devil himself. This is the sort of strength we want, but this sort of strength only comes from a humility that can surrender to God's plan.

And now back to all of us. Take from this reading the example of both Martha and Mary. Mary shows us how to listen to God, and Martha shows us how to work for God. Both are necessary, but Jesus tells us clearly that listening to him must come first. We must first hear God's voice in prayer before we try to do any work for God. So listen every day for his voice, find out what he wants from your life, and then act on what you hear.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

In today's Gospel, we are confronted with two questions. What must I do to inherit eternal life? Who is my neighbor?
These two questions form the crux of one of the most beloved parables in all of
the Gospels. These questions reverberate down to our present day because they
continue to be important to us. I want to look at how Jesus dealt with these
questions, then i want to look at how these questions apply to us. They're
timeless questions, but in the gospel they're set in a specific time, and so we
have to understand the basics of that period, and the three groups of people
that we meet in this story. We encounter a priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan.
We need to understand these groups as Jesus's listeners did in order to grasp
the full meaning of this story.

The priests and the Levites were almost the same group. The
Levites were one of the 12 tribes of Israel, and they were the ones who took
care of the temple. Priests were chosen from among the Levites, so all priests
were Levites, but not all Levites were priests. They represent the "in
crowd" of Judaism, because they were crucial for temple worship and
sacrifice.

And then there's the Samaritans: As Israel tried to identify
itself as a people, a religion, and a nation, marrying within the religion
became an important way to identify who belonged to our group and who didn't.
It was a way to identify "us" as followers of God and
"them," who were not. But not everybody followed this as closely as
they would have liked. The Jews in Samaria had started to marry outside the
religion, to mix the bloodlines, and they had done this for so long that they
formed a distinct people that was excluded from the rest of Judaism, and they
ended up being called the Samaritans. Samaritan was a bad word to Jesus's
audience, so in our parable they represent the "outsiders," not the
"in crowd of the priests and Levites.

From the get go, this story is tense, The gospel tells us that
the scholar wanted to test him. The whole purpose of this encounter was not a
friendly exchange of ideas, it was to test Jesus. But the conversation wasn't
initially about neighbors. The scholar tested him by asking him about eternal
life. The scholar said, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" and
Jesus quickly turns the conversation to be about neighbors. What is Jesus doing
here? Is he changing the topic? No, whether or not I inherit eternal life is
directly connected to how I treat my neighbor, so Jesus is getting right to the
heart of the matter.

So the scholar correctly quotes the first and greatest
commandment: to love God above all else and to love your neighbor as yourself.
This is child's play for this scholar. So he decided he wants to show off and
he asks "Well, who is my neighbor?" And then we get the story. The
scholar clearly wanted to prove that he was loving his neighbor as himself,
just as the commandment says, because to him, his "neighbor" was
those who were a part of his group, those who were easy to love.

But the correct answer to the question "Who is my
neighbor" is "everyone," I am supposed to love everyone as
myself. Jesus uses his story to say that Israel was not doing this. Now, it's
not immediately obvious in the story that the priest and the Levite did a bad
thing by passing the man on the opposite side of the road. In order to do their
ministry, the priest and the Levite had to observe ritual purity, and part of
that involved not touching human blood. So Jesus audience might have understood
why the priest and Levite didn't help. But then Jesus does something completely
unexpected. He brings this outsider, this Samaritan, in and makes him look like
the good guy.

So who is my neighbor? In the context of the commandment we hear
in the gospel, to love my neighbor as myself, who is my neighbor? Clearly, it's
not just the person who lives on either side of me. My neighbor in this context
is specifically the person I don't want to love. Now, if the person you don't
want to love actually does live right next to you, then great! You don't have
to go looking for someone to love, they're right there! The neighbor of the man
on the roadside was the Samaritan, the person who should have been his enemy.

Jesus is teaching us two big things about how to obey this
greatest commandment. He is teaching us that we can't just love those who are
easy to love, we have to love those who are difficult, and he is teaching us
that this love has to cost us something, it can't just be nice feelings.

We have to love those who are difficult to love. The Samaritan
and the man who got robbed had nothing to do with each other, and as far as
their cultures were concerned, they had every right to hate each other. We have
to love those who aren't a part of our group. Who would you rather not
associate with? Who is it easier to just avoid? That's a personal question. Is
it those who are richer than you? Poorer than you? Those who vote for the other
political party? Those who talk differently than you? Or maybe someone with a
different value system? Or maybe it's even more personal than that. Maybe
someone has hurt you, and that's the neighbor you don't want to love, maybe it
was someone close to you. Take a moment and examine your life and figure out
who it is who you don't want to love, and then figure out how to love that
person.

And that second lesson: this love has to cost us something.
When we love the difficult person, that love requires action, not just nice
sentiment. The Samaritan in the parable lifted the man onto his own animal, so
now the Samaritan was walking and thus exposed to the robbers who were around.
And, he spent his own money to take care of the man. He didn't just wish the
half-dead man a pleasant day, he went out of his way and drew from his own
resources to be a neighbor to him.

Finally, it's interesting to examine how the parable ends.
When Jesus puts the question back to the scholar of the law and asks him
"Which of these three was neighbor to the robber's victim?", the
scholar can't even bring himself to say "the Samaritan," because the
divide between the Jews and the Samaritans runs too deep. All he can say is
"The one who treated him with mercy." He sees the point of the story,
but he doesn't like it.

So what must I do to inherit eternal life? Who is my neighbor?
These are the questions to deal with today. We know we want eternal life, and
Jesus tells us that to inherit eternal life, we must consider everyone our
neighbor, and treat them as the Samaritan treated the robber's victim. So find
that difficult neighbor, show him mercy, and that's how you will inherit
eternal life.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The Sign of Peace is a very important piece of the Mass, but I think it is misunderstood.* At its best it is a chance to express exactly what it is: the peace of the Lord. At its worst, I have seen it more closely resemble a cocktail hour with lengthy and loud conversation, and people on a mission to shake the hand of everyone within their reach. This is on my mind because the Sign of Peace made an appearance today in the Office of the Readings:

"On the Lord’s day, when you have been gathered together, break bread and celebrate the Eucharist. But first confess your sins so that your offering may be pure. If anyone has a quarrel with his neighbor, that person should not join you until he has been reconciled. Your sacrifice must not be defiled. In this regard, the Lord has said: In every place and time offer me a pure sacrifice."

This passage comes from the Didache, a collection of writings that dates from the early 1st century. The Didache, which means "teaching," is the earliest example of a catechism that we have. This ancient document ties peace with each other to the issue of whether or not the sacrifice we offer to God us pure. So the Sign of Peace is a symbolic but deeply important gesture. We don't go around the church to offer the Sign of Peace to everyone to ensure our offering is pure, but we should examine our hearts each time we offer the Sign of Peace to our neighbor and ask "Is there anyone I know to whom I could not extend some sign of peace if they were standing next to me?" Perhaps there's someone who betrayed you, or perhaps political parties or leaders have let you down. Can you find it in your heart to extend to that person the Peace of the Lord? The sacrifice we offer to the Father is at stake. That's what the Sign of Peace is all about.

*This is one of those blogs that especially qualifies as "Deacon Brian's opinion." Please don't crucify me if you happen to love the Sign of Peace.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus bids us to ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for the harvest, because the harvest is abundant but the laborers are few. We love to use this passage to promote vocations to the priesthood, but the dangers is that we end up thinking that priests are the only ones who are sent to labor in this harvest that Jesus is speaking of. We end up twiddling our thumbs, looking around at anyone but ourselves, and hoping that The Lord sends someone else to do this laboring. But he laborers are each and every one of us! We are all meant to labor in this harvest! A quick glance at the evening news reminds us that the world is in rough shape, but this world is the harvest The Lord wants for himself, and he wants each of us to share in the labor it's going to require to get it! So today I am examining my life to see where I might labor more or better to help bring about this harvest in the world.

The picture is of the Calling of Matthew, a painting I was blessed to see while I was in Rome. Matthew is the one pointing at himself with the expression that says "Who? Me?" Many of us are genuinely surprised when we realize the great things Jesus is calling us to. Yet Matthew responded to the Lord's invitation to become a laborer of this harvest; let's try to imitate Matthew in this.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Yesterday was what the whole pilgrimage was building up to: visiting the tomb of St. Peter, celebrating mass there, and gaining a new appreciation for the Rock on which Christ build His Church. I am actually writing this entry from the plane on our way back to the United States because I was just too tired to write an entry last night after our great day at St. Peter's Basilica.

St. Peter's in the morning sun

To begin our day at St. Peter's we left our hotel at 6 am for the short walk over to the basilica. We celebrated an early morning mass in the crypt of the basilica surrounded by the tombs of about a dozen pontiffs, but most importantly, the tomb of St. Peter was about thirty feet behind our altar.

The tomb of Pope John Paul II

The length of the basilica

Then, every fifteen minutes or so, a small portion of our group left for the Scavi tour. This was a sacred, no-picture sort of area, so my description will have to suffice. Scavi is just Italian for excavation, and this is the tour that goes through the excavations below St. Peter's basilica. The present basilica was built in the 16th century (?) to replace the original basilica that had been built by Constantine in the 4th century. Constantine built the basilica over 1st century cemetery that our unbroken tradition held was where Peter was buried. The altar of each basilica has been located over the tomb of St. Peter, and in the 1940s they began excavations to try and find the tomb. The excavations found a tomb but it was empty. The excavations also discovered graffiti on a wall (much of the 1st century cemetery was above-ground internment buildings) referring to Peter's bones being below the tomb. They dug down and indeed found bones that we're identified as those of a man who was about 60 year olds. This indeed fits the description of Peter. DNA testing being what it was in the Roman Empire, no test can prove conclusively that these are Peter's bones of course. But the fact that we found bones of the right kind of person where 1900 years of tradition said they would be tells me that these are the bones of the first bishop of Rome.

Anyway, the Scavi tour takes you through much of the excavated cemeteries and you get to see the paintings preserved in the burial buildings, the inscriptions on the tombs, and the foundations of Constantine's basilica. Finally, you get to see the bones of St. Peter. After they were discovered and tested, they were replaced in their original location. They are located behind the wall of the Clementine chapel below the main altar, placed in a clear plastic box. You take a side door out of the beautiful Clementine chapel to enter the archeology area behind it and you see the bones through a hole in the wall. For all the beauty of the basilica, you only see the bones of the fisherman from Galilee by leaving the gold and artwork and climbing on catwalks in the dirt-filled excavation area. Somehow, that seems fitting.

In the afternoon we visited the Vatican museums. The museum was very crowded and difficult to enjoy, but on an emptier day I would have loved visiting their collection. The Vatican has a priceless collection of art and artifacts from all of world history, but the highlight was definitely walking through the Sistine Chapel where the pope is elected and Michelangelo's masterpieces cover every wall, to reflect on the beauty of the space and how the decisions made there have affected the course of the world. Again, pictures aren't allowed in the Sistine Chapel, so you'll just have to visit it yourself.

The Laocoön, a famous statue from 40-30 bc

Dinner in the evening, our last evening in Rome, was at a beautiful outdoor restaurant just outside the city with all 105 pilgrims. It was a beautiful ending to a great trip, and I already can't wait to come back again to Rome!

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Today's post will likely be brief because tomorrow is going to start especially early as we leave for mass in St. Peter's basilica. The day began with mass in some of the Christian catacombs, where we also were blessed to see the oldest known image of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, from the early 200s. It was very special to be among the burial grounds of so many Christians and really come to appreciate the ancientness of our faith.

Preparing for mass in the catacombs

A family burial room. You can see an image of the three wise men visiting Mary in the upper arch.

The oldest known image of the Virgin and Child. They're on the right, with a prophet pointing at them.

Then my half of the large group went to the Coliseum and the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum was the center for worship, trade, and government in 1st century Rome, and much of it has been excavated and available to view. Then we got a guided tour of the Coliseum and we got to go to the lowest and highest spots in the structure. That we truly awesome.

The Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum

The Arch of Titus contains the only existing image of the menorah from the Jewish temple from Jesus's day. This arch commemorates Titus's destruction of Jerusalem and his pillaging of the temple. Enslaved Jews built this arch.

Part of a basilica (which was a meeting hall, not originally a church) from Constantine's era, I think.

In Michelangelo's era, the green door was at ground level. It has all been excavated since then.

Waiting for our Coliseum tour

Approaching the floor of the arena

The Coliseum from down low

The Coliseum from up high

The clouds, too, we're epic this afternoon

After that, the bishop hosted a dinner for the young adults of this trip, and apparently I still qualify for that group! We had dinner at a great restaurant that Bob Rodgers the local seminarian knew of. Hands down the best dinner of the trip. Now, it's earlyish to bed as we prepare for morning mass in St. Peter's Basilica. So excited!

Right before dinner, we visited the tomb of the apostles Philip and James, next door to our restaurant.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Today began with mass in another one of the four Major Basilicas, the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. This is Bishop Paul Etienne's favorite basilica, but no big surprise there. It is a very simple basilica, at least compared to some of the others we've visited recently. One interesting feature of this basilica is that they have a mosaic of each pope, from St. Peter through Pope Benedict XVI (they're still working on Francis's picture) lining the upper walls of the basilica. We celebrated mass on a side altar, because ordinarily only the pope celebrates mass on the main altars of the Major Basilicas. St. Paul's tomb is located below the main altar, and the foundation of the fourth century basilica that preceded the current structure is also visible. During the year of St. Paul in 2008-09 archeologists drilled into the tomb located below the altar and discovered purple threads. Purple was an expensive dye in the ancient world, so anyone who was buried with it was a person of some importance. This lends credence to the undisputed tradition that Paul's mortal remains are indeed below the altar of this church.

Exterior view of the basilica

From inside the basilica's courtyard

Inside the basilica

The high altar and the apse. A few of the popes's images can be seen in the circles on either side of the apse.

St. Paul's tomb behind the grille

The foundation of the earlier basilica

Peter and Paul are always a team

The front of the basilica and courtyard

We then returned to the hotel for lunch, and then had a free afternoon because the normally scheduled Wednesday audience with the pope was cancelled this week. I joined a small group of young adults to wander a touristy shopping area near St. Peter's. We enjoyed dinner while we were out, and then we sat in St. Peter's Square as darkness descended in order to see the illuminated St. Peter's. Now, I am preparing to go to bed earlier than I have yet on this pilgrimage, only 10:30 pm.

St. Peter's through the columns

From another angle she's touching the tip of the dome. From this angle she just looks silly.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

The day started (after breakfast and an adequate amount of coffee) with mass at one of the four major basilicas of Rome, St. Mary Major. The name basically refers to it being the biggest church in Rome dedicated to Mary. The highlight of this mass was that I gotta preach the homily today. The gospel was about Jesus calming the storm, so I talked to the pilgrims about how Jesus can calm the storms of our life, whether they are storms of this pilgrimage or much bigger problems. In the gospel, Jesus sets faith as the opposite of fear when he says “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?”. So we need to allow faith to overcome our fear. Whatever we fear in this life, our faith in Christ can overcome it.

The Blessed Sacrament chapel in Mary Major.

St. Mary Major's has a relic of Christ's manger-crib below the altar

It's that piece of wood hanging in the middle:

The main interior of St. Mary Major's

And the exterior

I was privileged to preach this message in a side altar of Mary Major, where we had before us the icon of Mary entitled Salus Populi Romani, or The Help of the People of Rome. This is the most beloved image of Mary for the people of Rome. It is around a 1000 years old, and the people of Rome have turned to it in times of war, famine and plague to help their faith to overcome their fear.

After Mary Major, we visited the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, another icon with numerous miracles attributed to it. We also visited a church that claims to have the pillar that Jesus was scourged on. It was very special to pray in front of that. Then, after another delicious lunch in a street side restaurant, half the group left for a tour of the coliseum, while my half went with the Bishop Etienne and Rome Seminarian Bob Rodgers for some prayer time and tour of significant churches on the way back to the hotel. My half of the group will tour the coliseum on Thursday. We visited the church where St. Helen is buried. She was Constantine's mother and the one who discovered the True Cross, we visited the church where St. Ignatius of Loyola did his work in Rome, and we visited a church dedicated co St. Philip Neri, the "second apostle to Rome."

Trajan's Column. It commemorates the military victories of the early second century Emperor Trajan.

I don't honestly remember what church this was, but I liked all the chandeliers.

The dome of St. Ignatius's church

And above the nave

The dome of St. Alphonsus's church

And the apse

We then had dinner at the hotel with the whole group, and I enjoyed a nice drink and wonderful conversation on the patio with fellow seminarian Bob Rodgers before retiring for the evening.

Monday, July 1, 2013

Today was an experience of beautiful Roman art. We started with mass this morning at Santa Maria sopra Minerva, the only gothic church in Rome, and the resting place of Catherine of Siena. Then we were met by renowned art scholar Dr. Elizabeth Lev who took us on a tour of the Pantheon and surrounding churches. The highlights of the tour for me was finding the resting place of St. Monica, St. Augustine's mom, and seeing famous two famous works by Caravaggio: Madonna of the Pilgrims and The Calling of St. Matthew. I have studied these works in art classes and just assumed they were in museums somewhere. I was thrilled to find that they are actually in their original locations, still being used to foster worship.

St. Catherine of Siena's tomb

The interior of the Pantheon

St. Monica's tomb

Madonna of the Pilgrims

The Calling of St. Matthew

After lunch I left the group in order to finish preparing some talks, and I finally got to visit St. Peter's Basilica. You actually have to go through security, which surprised me, but after getting in I was awed by the size and the majesty of the place. The first thing I did was climb to the top of the dome, then I spent quite a bit of time in adoration, then I explored the inside of the church.

St. Peter's Square from the roof

The dome as seen from the roof. The pillars above the curved part of the dome are the point-of-view for the previous picture.

The back of the statues above the front of the basilica.

The Sistine Chapel from the basilica's roof.

From inside the dome, looking down.

The immensity of St. Peter's

A cool angle on the baldicheno (canopy) and dome. I like the light shining on the baldicheno's cross.

The crypt of the church

This is St. Longinus, the soldier who pierced Christ's side with a lance, he later became a martyr.

Peter and company

Just a Swiss Guard being awesome

In the evening, I connected with the the pilgrims from Holy Trinity in Cheyenne for another delicious dinner at a random street side restaurant. What a great day!